PM to keep punching on refugee bill fight

Scott Morrison will continue to fight a Labor-backed bill that would see ill refugees flown to Australia for medical treatment on the advice of two doctors.

The prime minister again went on the attack against Opposition Leader Bill Shorten about offshore processing centres.

The government stopped a vote being held on the asylum seeker bill during parliament's final sitting day of the year after Labor teamed up with the Greens and the crossbench in a bid to get the bill through

Mr Morrison has denied it was to avoid an embarrassing defeat in the lower house - the first of its kind in almost 90 years.

"Bill Shorten doesn't even understand what he's doing," he told reporters on Sunday.

"I don't think he really fully contemplates the compromise that he is putting in to effectively abolishing offshore processing as we know it.

"We are going to fight those changes with everything we've got."

Labor says the law changes would not abolish offshore processing, but provide better care for refugees on Nauru and Manus Island.

Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke said Labor had no plans to shut down the detention centres.

That is despite a push from some refugee advocates within Labor calling for an end to offshore processing and boat turnbacks ahead of the party's national conference.

Fairfax Media is reporting that delegates aligned to Labor for Refugees are expected to put forward motions at the conference in Adelaide to close offshore processing centres.

"Every national conference has been a determination that we don't adopt any policy that would start the drownings again," the manager of opposition business told Sky News on Sunday.

"If you stop the turnbacks policy, I don't think there is any doubt that the drownings would commence again."